School of Economics
School of Economics
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School Personal Tutoring Statement

The Personal Tutor system will provide you with a named member of academic staff, your Personal Tutor, who will support you throughout your time at the University, giving you academic support and a route to pastoral support. You, as a Tutee, will work with your Personal Tutor to reflect on your academic performance, how this contributes to your aspirations and helps you to engage as a member of a community of learners. You will also be supported throughout your time at university by a Student Support Team.

Your Personal Tutor

Your Personal Tutor is a member of academic staff familiar with your general area of study and the expectations of academic work in your discipline. Working with your Personal Tutor will help you to:

  • become a more confident learner in your discipline and play an active part in your academic community.

  • reflect on your academic progress and make the most effective use of your academic feedback.

  • develop the range of skills and attributes required for success at university and beyond.

    You can find out who your Personal Tutor is via MyEd.\

Postgraduate Taught Students

During the taught part of your degree programme your School will schedule meetings with your Personal Tutor to enable you to settle in and support your development as a member of your subject area’s academic community. You will also have one further scheduled individual meeting with your Personal Tutor during the research part of your degree programme.

  • The one-to-one meetings are focused on your individual results—how you’re doing, what you might be doing well in or struggling with, your plans after the degree, and so on

  • The first one-to-one meeting will take place in mid-to-late October, once the results from your September exams are available

  • The second one-to-one meeting will take place in January/February, after the results from your December exams are available

  • The third one-to-one meeting will take place in June or July, once you have started working on your dissertation

  • The meetings will be arranged by your personal tutor—you will receive an email asking you to sign up online for a time that suits you

  • Meetings will be scheduled for 10 – 15 minutes, but you are free to ask for more time if you feel that you need it

  • If you wish to arrange an additional meeting, just email your Personal Tutor

 

You will also be involved in at least two group meetings (in the taught part of your degree programme) and other activities designed to support your development as a member of an academic community.

  • There will be an induction meeting for the MSc group on the first day of your course (12th Sept) followed by induction lunch, a university PG induction on Tuesday 13th September and an induction welcome party for the group on Friday 16th September; these are designed to make sure that everyone knows each other and understands what they need to about the programme, the university, and the city

  • There will be further small group induction meetings, varying in size and duration, and centred around some (hopefully fun!) activity

  • There will also be a set of group meetings that take place at the two-day Postgraduate Conference in January

  • There are two types of group meetings at the conference: there will be one mandatory 30 minute progress report about a group project that you will be working on, and there will also be a set of optional meetings on careers and the possibility of PhD study at the various Universities involved in the Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics.

  • All group meetings are scheduled centrally and you will be notified of them by email.

Support Contacts

Within each School there are a number of other roles working in partnership with Personal Tutors to make sure the Personal Tutor system works for you.

 

Student Support Team

Each School has a Student Support Team (SST) working with Personal Tutors to support you.

  • Your Student Support contact is Carole-Anne Marshall (the Programme Manager) and she is assisted by Sophie Bryan; you can contact them via email (sgpe@ed.ac.uk), pop by during the drop-in hours of 10am to 4pm during the week, or telephone 0131 651 1764

  • Most questions you might have will be directed either at your Personal Tutor (if they are academic questions like “how do I go about choosing a dissertation topic?”) or the Student Support Team (if they are administrative questions like “how do I get a letter confirming my status in the programme?”); if you’re not sure who to ask, just ask one of us at random and we’ll get you sorted out

  • If your Personal Tutor is not available please contact the Senior Tutor, Jonathan Thomas (Jonathan.Thomas@ed.ac.uk).

  • We aim to respond to all queries within one or two business day

Senior Tutor

Each School has a Senior Tutor who oversees the effectiveness of personal tutoring within your School. If you feel that you cannot speak to your Personal Tutor (and sometimes people simply do not get along due to no fault of either side) please contact your Senior Tutor.

  • The Senior Tutor is the Programme Director, Jonathan Thomas (Jonathan.Thomas@ed.ac.uk)

  • If you would like to change your Personal Tutor, please email the Senior Tutor or the Programme Administrator.

 

More details on the Personal Tutoring system can be found at: My Personal Tutor

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